Americans Burn 50% Less Fossil Fuel in Their Homes Than They Did 50 Years Ago

This good news means that even though the “Electrify Everything” movement became a leading decarbonization strategy a decade or so ago, American homes had actually been steadily electrifying long before that. An all-electric future is thus not only possible, we’re well on our way to achieving it.

Let’s dive into the numbers to see what happened and analyze why this trend, which is so good for the planet, has been taking place seemingly on its own.Fossil fuel consumption in American homes has fallen by half. Table based on data from the Energy Information Administration. See full spreadsheetElectricity as a percentage of per capita energy that Americans use in their homes has thus nearly tripled from 16% in 1972 to 45% today.

But we should note that while there are many more electric appliances in the home now, they are significantly more efficient and use a fraction of the energy of their predecessors. Electric appliances have achieved more efficiency gains than gas appliances, as evidenced from the chart below where gas furnaces have barely gotten more efficient in the last 3 decades. Electricity would thus be even a larger share of home energy use but for these incredible gains in efficiency.

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